Democratic Republican Alliance

The Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) was a conservative political party in France that was active from 1901 to 1949, serving as the main center-right party of the French Third Republic. The party was founded by followers of Leon Gambetta, and the business wing of the Radical Party of France, moderates, center-left liberals, and Opportunists united to form the party. However, after World War I and the parliamentary disappearance of Bonapartists and Royalists, it quickly became the main center-right party of the French Third Republic. It was part of the National Bloc right-wing coalition which won the elections after the end of the war. The ARD was largely discredited after supporting the Vichy regime during World War II, and it turned into little more than an intellectual circle and supper club. It disappeared from the political scene in 1949, with many of its members joining CNIP, but it did not formally dissolve until 1978.